The Anthropocene

Question 1

Define the anthropocene

Answer 1

• An informal geologic chronological term
• serves to mark the evidence and extent of humans activities that have significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems

Question 2

Who coined the term “anthropocene”

Answer 2

• Eugene Stoermer
• The influence of human behaviour on the earths atmosphere is so significant
• it constitutes a new geological era for its lithosphere

Question 3

What have humans done to cause the anthropocene?

Answer 3

• Altered the physical and biological fabric of earth
• Altered the stocks and flows of major elements - nitrogen, carbon
• Altered the energy balance at the earths surface

Question 4

What does the anthropocene suggest?

Answer 4

It suggests that the earth has left its natural geological epoch, the present interglacial state called the holocene

Question 5

Why are the origin stories of the anthropocene important?

Answer 5

• Allows us to map out the future - what we can expect to happen
• Allows us to understand how to respond through technological and social relations

Question 6

What are Steffens (2007) stages of the anthropocene?

Answer 6

1) The industrial era - 1800-1945
2) The great acceleration - 1945 -2015 - post war
3) Stewards of earths systems - 2015 -?

Question 7

Outline stage 1 of the anthropocene (Steffen 2007)

Answer 7

The industrial era

• Widespread use of coal and expansion of economic society
• Human population expansion - 750 mil to 2.5bl

Question 8

Outline stage 2 of the anthropocene (Steffen 2007)

Answer 8

The age of acceleration

• Around 1945 the most rapid shift in the human environment relationship began
• Also advent of the USA as a world military, economic and cultural power

Question 9

What increased during the great acceleration?

Answer 9

• Species extinction
• Rainforest and woodland loss
• Natural climatic disasters
• Ozone depletion

Question 10

Outline stage 3 of the anthropocene (Steffen 2007)

Answer 10

Stewards of the earth

• Rise of environmental movements and awareness (60s)
• Advances in research
• Power and reach of info through the internet
• Growth of democracy, strengthening power and role of civil society

Question 11

What was the Earth like before the anthropocene

Answer 11

• The agriculture revolution 10-12,000 years ago
• Humans domesticated animals and landscapes
• But did not have technology to dominate above regional level

Question 12

What are the 3 different paths that could be taken in the anthropocene?

Answer 12

1) Business as usual
2) Mitigation
3) Geo-engineering

Question 13

Describe the business as usual scenario

Answer 13

• Human driven changes will not disrupt the global economy or societies
• Market oriented economic system can adapt adequately
• The resources are available to mitigate damage

Question 14

What are the risks of business as usual

Answer 14

• By the time humans realise:
• world will be committed to further decades of environmental change
• Collapse of modern, globalised society under uncontrollable environmental change

Question 15

Describe the mitigation scenario

Answer 15

• Improved technology and social organisation
• Wise use of resources
• control of human and animal population
• Conservation and restoration of the environment

Question 16

What is the dematerialisation?

Answer 16

• Tech and economic development is essential
• Advances in transport, energy, agriculture and other sectors
• The amount and value of economic activity continues to grow but amount of physical material flowing through economy does not

Question 17

Why is energy important for mitigation?

Answer 17

• Energy conservation
• Replacements of fossil fuels through new technologies
• Solar thermal photovoltaic through nuclear fission and fusion to wind power
• Biofuels from forests and crops

Question 18

Outline the geo-engineering scenario

Answer 18

• Sequestration of carbon dioxide in underground reservoirs

- Another technology is the release of aerosols to reflect the suns rays in the stratosphere

Question 19

What are the risks of geo-engineering?

Answer 19

• Risks of unintended consequences

- Subject to intense ethical debate

Question 20

What are the different world views and global models?

Answer 20

• From one earth to one world
• The two images of earth; one rooted in nature and other in global economic society - must be reconciled
• Defines the challenges of world sustainability

Question 21

What are the historical implications of the Western view of the earth?

Answer 21

• World is spatially divided up, labelled, sorted into hierarchy
• This process provides geographical framing within which political elites and mass publics act in pursuit of their own identities and interests

Question 22

What are the implication of the anthropocene for human/social geography?

Answer 22

• Cultural shift in perspectives of the earth

- Regime shift in the activity of industrial societies which caused global disruptions

Question 23

What does the concept of the anthropocene generate?

Answer 23

• New modes of thinking about time
• New forms of territorialisation
• New modes of thinking about the ‘human’ as a geological as well as a geographical agent

Question 24

What is an alternative to the anthropocene?

Answer 24

The Capitalocene

• Changes the the earths processes are generated through the material and economic systems of capitalism
• A sustainable future is not possible without generating new models of economic and social exchange

Question 25

What social processes can be considered as geological processes?

Answer 25

- Urbanisation - cities as living fossils - Consumption of fossil fuels - Mobilities - cars, shipping, flying - Deep sea dredging - impact of new technologies and social processes